Burial sites shed light on the past

Fells are usually steep slopes on the sides of mountains or hills and the word suggests something lofty, wild and rugged.

In the North York Moors, however, we might include such a place in our general description of moor or moorland without using the word "fell", but if its sides are steep and rocky, we might term it a crag or, if it is a long piece of high land, the chances are that it is a rigg, ridge or even a nab.

I am sure that if some of the loftier places within the North York Moors were located in the Yorkshire Dales, they would be described as fells.

If you pay a visit to the North York Moors, however, you will see lots of smaller mounds on the open tops of the moors; there is a fine example on the drive into Hutton le Hole from Kirkbymoorside.

As you descend into Hutton le Hole you can see the moorland skyline some miles ahead and, with striking clarity, the horizon is marked by the distinct presence of three smooth mounds.

These are called howes; in fact, these three are, not surprisingly, known as Three Howes and their location is a stretch of moorland to the west of, and close to, the top of Rosedale's Chimney Bank.

This is just one of several clusters of howes which are known as Three Howes; others are sited on Egton Moor, Bransdale Moor and Harwood Dale Moor.

I am not sure how many howes are sited within the North York Moors, but a rough estimate of the known named ones - which tend to be the larger examples - would be about 80 or 90; a more liberal estimate is that there are thousands, with a figure of 10,000 being suggested.

Many have been lost due to the passage of time or, of course, cultivation of, and changes to, the moorland.

But even these howes have different names - some are known as barrows, others as cairns and some as tumuli. The word "howe" has different spellings too, eg houe, how or even hoo.

There is little doubt that some of these howes are nothing more than natural mounds, but a high proportion are former burial sites.

Beneath them would be a chamber built of flat stones and this would contain relics of ancient peoples, including objects such as their bones (which were often cremated), but also their personal belongings such as tools, ornaments and weapons like arrow-heads.

In some cases, bronze implements have been found in the burial chambers along with jet ornaments and earthenware vessels used for cooking and eating.

It is a sad fact that many were rifled by amateur antiquarians who removed the artefacts and stones. Some of these found homes in museums, but many were kept by these raiders.

There is no doubt that much evidence of our ancient history and forebears was permanently lost through the activities of those unskilled excavators even if, as some believed, they were adding to our knowledge of the past.

It seems that many important finds were recorded, but in removing items from the howes, precious evidence of the life of the people buried there has been either lost or destroyed, however inadvertently. Some howes were even rifled for road-making materials!

One feature of these howes was that they were often, but not always, in very elevated places and, in some cases, secondary and smaller howes were placed alongside the earlier larger ones. Groups of three are not uncommon.

Ditches were often found around the howes, but it is felt these were little more than the source of materials used to build them, although in some instances concealed ditches beneath the mounds were thought to have had some kind of religious significance. A route to heaven perhaps?

Coffins of both stone and wood have been found in some howes and it seems they date from Neolithic times (ie, the later Stone Age) or even the Bronze Age.

From the information gleaned from a few studies of these howes, there is evidence that those ancient peoples followed some kind of religion, probably based on the worship of the sun.

That might explain the high altitude of some burial mounds, when the dead were placed as near as possible to the sun, or it might have been that those sites were the most favourable for other reasons.

In the past, people lived on elevated land because the lowlands were marshy or even covered by lakes.

At the time these mounds were created, the moors, now treeless, were probably covered by dense woodland.

One curious discovery comprised pollen from various flowering plants. This was found high up in the mound of a tumulus and experts believe it showed that those primitive people actually laid wreaths on the graves of their dear departed.

Modern scientific excavations of these sites will surely reveal more of the life of those moorland people. But it must have been a very tough life!

Modern research continues to suggest that drinking moderate amounts of alcohol, red wine in particular, is beneficial to one's heart.

A survey of more than 38,000 men aged between 40 and 75 conducted over 12 years has just been published and it shows that regular drinking (rather than occasional drinking) is the most beneficial.

It seems that a little of what you fancy every day is the key towards helping to avoid a heart attack, although one must always take one's own individual condition and health into account - and not over do it!

As a regular drinker of red wine, however, and one who hopes these findings are true, I never thought my activity would help in saving the Iberian lynx.

So how can the regular drinking of wine, either red or white, help to save this endangered species? The answer lies in the cork oak forests along the borders of Spain and Portugal.

Today, there is a tendency for some wine producers to use plastic stoppers or metal screw tops instead of the conventional corks.

As a consequence, there is a decrease in the demand for corks, which in turn means that those cork forests may no longer be viable as a source of income. Already, there is talk of replacing them with other forms of forestry or agriculture.

The problem is that the cork forests are the habitat of the Iberian lynx, which is already on the verge of extinction. Figures recently published show that there are only some 150 of these beautiful cat-like animals left, and of those only 30 are females capable of breeding.

Efforts are being made to ensure the future of this handsome animal, but there are genuine fears it could be extinct within a decade. If this happens, it will be the first feline to become extinct since the sabre-toothed tiger.

In addition to being the habitat of the Iberian lynx, however, those cork forests are also home to a variety of other endangered wildlife, such as the Iberian Imperial eagle, the Portugal and Barbary deer and, in winter, the entire European population of crane.

They always spend the winter in these cork oak forests and, furthermore, the forests support more than 80,000 people whose jobs depend upon them.

Sheep and goats graze in the forests, bees produce honey within their boundaries, the acorns from the oak provide animal foodstuffs, while fruit and berries go into local products.

The extraction of cork from the trees does not harm them. It is a crop which is well-managed and closely controlled, with cork being made from the bark.

Bark is removed from a tree only once in every nine years, and these forests contain trees up to 400 years old.

The use of natural cork is not harmful to the environment as some would lead us to believe. In fact, the continued use of natural cork could become a life-saver for creatures like the Iberian lynx. I'll drink to that!

One interesting development in our region is the increase in the number of farmers' markets. Easingwold is the latest town to have been granted permission to host one.

The plan is that the market will be held one day a month in the market square and will have about ten stalls selling home-reared and locally grown produce.

This news came as Richmond farmers' market was celebrating a highly successful Christmas - developments of this kind are wonderful in generating an increase in trade in our market towns.

Let's hope 2003 is a prosperous year for them all.